


(i carry it in my heart)

by Howto_Fandomoverload



Series: voltron wlw month 2017 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, writing this made me at least 5x gayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 17:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11673885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howto_Fandomoverload/pseuds/Howto_Fandomoverload
Summary: Written for the August wlw Voltron prompt. Day 1: flowersShay and Allura make flower crowns (for each other) and smile a lot (at each other).





	(i carry it in my heart)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from That poem by e.e. cummings. 
> 
> I saw the poster with Shay and Allura wearing flowers crowns and everything just sort of...happened from there
> 
> I've been on AO3 for two years but this is the first thing I've posted so I don't know what I'm doing lmao

Shay’s hands were big and strong and capable. They were the kind of strong Allura wouldn’t trust on anyone else. She was sure that, if Shay wanted to, she could punch through cave walls and leave a string of black eyes and broken bones in her wake, all without any real effort.

But these thoughts had probably never even occurred to Shay. Shay, who pressed her palms tenderly to the Balmera’s surface and _asked_ and tons of rock willingly moved for her, who held Allura gently in her arms when Allura felt like striking out against something, anything. Shay, who made her feel safe and warm.

At the moment, Shay’s hands were tying flowers together into a crown. Allura had heard Lance complaining of “sweaty hands” when he was flirting. A very human response to nerves, she thought. Alteans didn’t sweat, and Allura never got nervous. She frowned and looked down at her own hands holding a selection of flowers. Except that...she _was_ nervous, and she wasn’t certain why. She already knew that Shay wasn’t a threat.

“Princess?”

Allura lifted her chin to look into Shay’s face. Shay was tilting her head, her amber eyes opened wide in concern.

“Princess,” she repeated, “what's wrong?”

“I was just thinking….” Allura hummed softly, collecting her thoughts, and studied Shay’s trusting expression. “I was just thinking, I don't know how to make a flower crown.”

“That’s alright, Princess!” Shay seemed to brighten, and said enthusiastically, “I didn’t know either! My planet doesn’t have flowers, after all. Hunk showed me.”

Shay carefully set aside her chain of flowers and cupped Allura’s hands in her own. Her hands totally engulfed Allura’s smaller pair, and Allura thought idly that her hands were like ships resting in a calm sea.

Shay smiled sweetly and said, “I’ll teach you, then. Since you don’t know how.”

Allura relaxed and nodded her consent, nervousness gone. She passively let Shay move her pile of flowers from her hands into her lap. She blinked her eyes lazily as she watched Shay demonstrate.

“You have to knot the end of the stem around the blossom, see? That way, it becomes a chain.”

Shay’s fingers moved quickly and skillfully, careful not to break the delicate flowers. Then she handed Allura several flowers with long, bendy stalks, obviously waiting for her to try.

Once she knew where to begin, it wasn’t a challenging process. Allura worked slowly and steadily in an unbroken pattern: grab a flower, tie a knot, tighten, repeat. So much felt like a race against time. A competition to see who could get to their stations fastest, if they could form Voltron quicker than the time before...Allura was tired of it. Sitting with Shay, she felt no rush at all. She was content to sit next to her and make her flower crown. 

Idle thoughts of Altea passed through Allura’s mind, but they didn’t sting with homesickness and loss like they typically did. She felt a gentle ache of remembrance and leaned closer in to Shay until they were shoulder to shoulder and Allura could rest against her. Shay was like a balm, she’d dicovered. Her presence was soothing, and Allura felt old wounds and new hurts closing over and healing.

After a while she realized she was a flower or two away from finishing her crown. Allura lightly chuckled as she realized it was obviously for Shay. She hadn’t consciously decided to make her one, but she had picked out the flowers that looked nicest against Shay’s skin. Plus, she had made it too large for any of the Paladins, she reasoned, and Coran could always make his own if he wanted.

Allura turned her head against Shay's neck as she looked to see how much progress Shay had made. She had several flower crowns in her lap and was tying another closed. Allura felt the rhythm of her breath as her chest expanded in and out. She was reminded of being lulled to sleep in the hull of a ship, rocked by waves in a constant motion. She sighed, sorry for what she was about to say.

“Shay?”

“What is it, Princess?”

“I think the others will be expecting us back soon.” Allura was unwilling to move just then. “It’s been a wonderful afternoon.”

“I think so too, Princess.”

“Please, call me Allura."

Shay nodded and ducked her head. It was an endearingly shy gesture. Allura’s nervousness came back, just a tiny bit. Would Shay like the flower crown she had made her?

“Okay...Allura. I, um, I made this for you.” 

Shay held something out in her hands for Allura to take. It was the flower crown she had just finished. Allura froze disbelievingly as her eyes focused on the exquisitely linked flowers. They were beautiful, but as Allura raised her eyes to look at Shay, she found herself more entranced by the hopeful expression on her friend's face. 

Shay’s voice filtered nervously back to her. “I made the others for everyone else! I just, um.” Her voice lowered in volume. “I saved those flowers for your crown. I think they’re really pretty…”

Suddenly, Allura giggled. She hadn’t needed to be nervous after all. Shay was nervous around her, too. Shay started in alarm, face twisting in concern, but Allura waved a hand in the air as if to say _‘don’t worry’_. She began to laugh in earnest, grabbing Shay’s outstretched arms for support. Shay began to giggle, too, as if Allura’s laughter was contagious.

“I think _you’re_ pretty, Shay. And I made this crown for you,” she said, gasping for air between chuckles, and gestured to it.

Shay gasped, “Oh! It’s lovely!”

“Lower your head for me, I can’t reach.”

The beaming smile on Allura’s face was evident in the sound of her voice. Shay did as she requested, and Allura placed the crown on Shay’s head. Shay’s eyes crinkled with the force of her smile, and she returned the gesture, gently setting the flower crown in her hands upon Allura’s head. She spent a moment adjusting it so that it laid straight in her hair.

“We really should get back to other others now.”

“Alright, Allura." Shay reached up and brushed her fingers tentatively against the flowers in her hair, as if she couldn’t quite believe they were there. 

Allura thought she was beautiful.

“Do you want–,” she began, and stopped mid-sentence. “Would you _like_ ,” she tried again, “to hold hands? With me?”

“I would love to, Allura."

Shay stood up and held out a hand for Allura to take. She helped her to her feet and they stood there for a moment, looking at each other affectionately and holding hands.

Then, with their hands grasped tightly together, flower crowns they’d made for each other perched on their heads, they began to walk back to the castle.

**Author's Note:**

> writing this healed my heart a little. I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> my tumblr is glendowersleeps


End file.
